President Ivan Duque vowed to send more troops to southwest Colombia after clashes between locals from Cali and indigenous protesters triggered fears of a civil war on Sunday.
At least eight of the protesters and at least one Cali resident were injured south of Colombia’s third largest city in the latest escalation of violence in anti-government protests that kicked off last month.
Duque ignoring escalating crisis ‘out of prudence’
Mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina urged the president to visit Cali to address the “political problem of a national nature” that has manifested itself most violently in Cali, which is also reporting food shortages.
In an interview with Noticias Uno, Ospina said he was “unable to fulfill his duties” after more than 10 days of national protests against Duque left his city “ungovernable.”
In a video r4sponse, Duque said he wouldn’t visit Cali “out of prudence” and called on Defense Minister Diego Molano “guarantee the biggest deployment of troops our security forces have available” to “grant tranquility to the city of Cali.”
The president called on the native Colombians to end their participation in the anti-government protests and “return to your reserves again.”
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Molano said last month already he would send as many as 2,300 cops and soldiers to Cali, escalating violence that followed “the social bomb that exploded in Cali” as journalist Mabel Lara called it.
Journalist Mabel Lara
Cali’s mayor also urged the need to address extreme poverty in his city, which was also ignored by Duque who has consistently refused to address concerns about the devastating consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
Footage of the violence
Talks of civil war
Journalist Catherine Juvinao and Comedian Diego Matteus warned that Cali was all but submerged in a civil war while, according to Juvinao, “this country is without president.”
Comedian Diego Matteus
According to political analyst Leon Valencia, “there is a threat of a civil war in Cali… it’s that serious. The elites and the population are arming themselves, the clashes are generalizing.”
The United Nations human rights chief in Colombia, Juliette de Rivero, condemned the violence, urged criminal investigations and called for talks.
UN human rights chief Juliette de Rivero
Duque has yet to talk to the organizations whose national strike spurred anti-government protests throughout Colombia, despite the security forces’ attempt to suppress them with extreme violence.